Because You're Not Her
by omgjazzyyyy
Summary: Stefan and Damon are fighting over how to protect Elena and then Elena joins in on the argument. One-Shot. Delena.


**Disclaimer – I own nothing**

**Set after "The Last Dance" and my inspiration came from Stefan and Damon arguing over the best way to protect Elena.**

**I'm not a writer in anyway, but I hope you guys enjoy it!**

Elena awoke with a start from her huge four poster bed in the Salvatore mansion. The sun was shining in through her window, but she had no idea of the time; she barely remembered getting to bed last night because she had been so exhausted after everything that had happened. She heard angry shouts coming from downstairs and it sounded like Stefan and Damon.

She jumped out of bed and raced downstairs to see what it was that had them at it … again. She walked into the parlor to see them strangling each other, literally trying to kill one another.

"Stop! Stop! What are you doing?"

She ran in between them and attempted to push them apart but to no avail, only when they actually noticed her presence did they finally release each other.

Stefan turned and began pacing the room with a disgusted look on his face, while Damon made his way to the liquor cart and poured himself a drink.

"What is going on?" Elena asked. She was tired of them always being at it with each other.

Stefan spoke first believing that Elena would take his side in the matter. "He means to get us all killed!" He pointed at Damon heatedly, while Damon smirked in his direction and chugged another glass of Bourbon. "And you don't even care who has to die as long as it serves your purpose, right Damon?"

"Oh come on Stefan! You knew how this was going to go! In order to save Elena we all have to put our lives on the line!"

"We'll find another way." Stefan wasn't going to let Damon run the show because he made one good decision with Bonnie. Damon scoffed, rolled his eyes and took another long gulp of his golden liquor.

Elena had no idea where they were going with this conversation; all she knew was that Damon was right. "All of our lives are going to be on the line no matter what we do Stefan. We just have to figure out what our best plan of attack is."

"You're agreeing with him? You don't even know what he's planning?" Stefan was outraged. All he wanted was to keep her safe, but instead she goes running to Damon.

"It doesn't matter Stefan! People are going to die! Are you not willing to die for me?" Right after she asked that question she felt silly asking, she had already known the answer to that question.

Stefan hesitated, and Elena's mouth gaped in horror and tears began to brim in her eyes. Damon's anger rose higher than it had ever been, it welled in his chest like a burning fire. Stefan opened his mouth to speak, but Elena cut him off, "No! Don't!" Elena tried to control the sound of her voice with the knot rising in her throat, "I don't want to hear your lies." With that Elena rushed upstairs, she didn't want to be near him.

Damon put his glass down on the cart, and approached Stefan. "Why are you still here then? If you don't care what happens to Elena, why stay?" Damon fought every urge in his body to kill Stefan where he stood and be done with it, but that would hurt Elena and Damon wouldn't allow that.

Stefan didn't answer; he just glared back at Damon. That's when Damon pushed harder, "Better yet, why'd you come back to Mystic Falls in the first place? Why come back after so many years, when there was really nothing for you here? Huh, Stefan?" Stefan's glare grew angrier and it seemed that he was reaching his breaking point. Damon wanted to break him, he finally yelled straight in his face, "Why did you come back here?"

"Because she looked like her!" Stefan broke and he regretted the answer right after he gave it. He knew that Elena had probably heard everything that they were yelling and what he had just said was unforgiveable.

Damon had finally gotten the truth from him. "You know, I came back here for Katherine too, that was until I discovered that she's super bitch and she plunged a knife into my unbeating heart. But I was always able accept what I am, and that everything I did was for her, but you couldn't. You used Elena, you couldn't have Katherine, so you decided to have her doppelganger. I may have came here in the beginning for Katherine, but I stayed for Elena."

Stefan was in shock. Everything had happened so fast, in a single moment he had lost his girlfriend to his brother, admitted a truth he had been lying to himself about and realized that his love for Katherine wasn't compelled like he had made himself believe for so long. He knew that he couldn't stay in the boarding house any longer and that he really wasn't welcome anyway. "Tell Elena that I'm sorry." And he was gone.

Damon rushed upstairs to find Elena. He assumed that he would find her in her room, but she wasn't there. Then he heard the quiet sobs coming from, his room? He found her sitting on his bed with her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried in them.

Damon resisted his urge to bound across the room and cradle her in his arms; instead he walked to the side of his bed, sat beside her and placed his hand on hers.

She looked up at him, her tear streaked face holding nothing but her sorrow. "It was only ever because I looked like her," she was barely able to get the words out between sobs. Damon's heart broke for her, he hated Stefan for hurting her this way and he wanted nothing more than to take away her pain.

"You don't look like her." Elena looked at him confused, she was the doppelganger, of course she looked like her, they were identical. Damon continued, "Your nose is smaller and it tilts just slightly more to the right, you have the most slight trace of freckles, your lips are much softer, and your eyes …" Damon cupped her face so that she was looking straight into his eyes, "your eyes are lighter, and when I look in them I see Elena, and not even a trace of Katherine. You are so much more beautiful than she ever was."

Elena was speechless and tears brimmed in her eyes for the second time today, but these were tears of happiness.

Damon knew that he had to tell her how he felt before he lost his nerve to do so, "I love you Elena, and not because you look like her, I love you for all the reasons that you're not her."

Elena looked at him with so much love in her eyes, she loved him too, but she wasn't ready to admit those feelings for him out loud just yet. Instead she pulled him up onto the bed with her and buried herself into his chest. Damon wrapped his arms around her and for the first time in a long time Elena felt safe.

**So I hope you liked it, I had fun writing it, review and let me know what you think!**


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